Battle Group Decision Making And Related Planning Processes: Intuitive Or Deliberate? An Ongoing Dialogue

Over the past 100 years… the estimate process has been subject to a nearly constant doctrinal battle between those seeking to hone command intuition and those seeking a more scientifically based staff decision-making process.

INTRODUCTION

United States Army War College researchers Kristan Wheaton and James Morningstar, in a recent War Room article, accurately captured the dialogue between those who favour intuitive processes for decision making—and, by extension, planning—and those who support more deliberate and structured models. The crux of the argument appears to be a perceived tension between thinking and acting rapidly, guided by command intuition, and conducting a slower methodical estimate and formal planning cycle. Despite the seeming gap between these two positions, one can argue that current Canadian Army tactical decision-making doctrine permits battle groups the flexibility for both approaches and a myriad of permutations between them.